BioWare Looks to "Baldur's Gate Roots" for Dragon Age: Origins

[Andy Chalk]

BioWare Looks to "Baldur's Gate Roots" for Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider says that while Mass Effect is a "more cinematic" experience, Dragon Age: Origins [http://www.bioware.com].

Gaider, who joined the company in 1999 to work on Gamasutra [http://www.bioware.com/games/shadows_amn/] he said that while gamers may compare the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins to BioWare's previous release, Mass Effect, he hopes that people will appreciate that the company is going for something "a little different."

"Mass Effect is great - it's more cinematic - whereas with Dragon Age, we're definitely going to something that's a little more traditional. There's nothing wrong with traditional. We're looking at our Baldur's Gate roots," he said.

Gaider said working on Baldur's Gate 2 was a particularly good experience because the studio was using a "tried and true engine," which meant the team could focus on content creation and testing from the very start. "We haven't really been in that situation since. Mass Effect 2 is there now, which is good for the team. Hopefully, for Dragon Age, we'll get there, too," he said.

"But [with Baldur's Gate 2] we were in this great place where we could just generate content and be a little bit experimental in terms of what we tried. We tried romances - we just said, 'Can we do that?' or, 'I like working on this Drow setting. I'd like to try this'," he continued. "It was very permissive, allowing the writers and designers to have ownership over what they were working on. The idea was that a lot of the story was told through your followers, the ones you had in your party."

Computer-controlled party dynamics were a standout feature of Baldur's Gate and Gaider said followers in Dragon Age will also have "a bit of exchange." They've also allowed the writers greater flexibility in questing and morality options, rather than simple "good" or "evil" options. "From a writing perspective, when you have these followers, and you get a different range of their own morality and their own agendas, you get to use them almost as a cipher through which the story is told, because we've taken away the morality bar," he said. "Taking that away allowed us to have different options for the quests and the dialogue, but we don't need to always have 'evil' and 'good.' We are allowed to put in options that are just logical. They can be very different. You can think there's a good reason to do all of them. They can be a little in the gray area."

Dragon Age: Origins is scheduled for release on October 20 for the PC, PlayStation 3 [http://www.xbox.com].



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[MrPop]

Well from the initial gameplay clips it didn't look much like Mass Effect. It looked more like Dungeon Seige etc >.>

 

[Fenixhart]

Well from the initial gameplay clips it didn't look much like Mass Effect. It looked more like Dungeon Seige etc >.>

Not Suprising, considering that they said they were looking to their Baulder's Gate Roots. Not Mass Effect.

 

[Baby Tea]

I'm pumped. Everything I hear about this game makes me MORE pumped.
Bioware, I love you.

 

[murphy7801]

could be a laugh

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

This looks fairly awesoem
Bioware=god of making good rpgs'

 

[cainx10a]

over the past years I have become more attracted to solo play than group play in RPGs, maybe because I can see my character strength up close and personal, unlike my Warrior in NWN 2 that seem to miss more at slapping his target than my grandma would (that can be quite painful).

But I have NEVER been disappointed by a BioWare game before, just glad it's getting released in October.

 

[Slycne]

For me they can look into empty KFC buckets as long as they make a good RPG out of it, but frankly I didn't like the big teams in Baldur's Gate, I prefer to have one directly controlable character.

I'm with you on this. I play an RPG to play as my character not baby sit the friendly NPC AI. I am hoping they have continued to make improvements. They have come a long way since Baldur's Gate and recent releases like Mass Effect and Neverwinter series have had near passable AI. Although they still seem to be prone to random IQ drops from time to time.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

I was hoping that like the past Baldur's Gates and NWN that this one too would be multiplayer by LAN. I like the multiplayer aspect of those games, and miss the fact that most RPGs these days don't give that option.

 

[9of9]

They've been saying this since they announced the game... even before they announced the game, I think. So I think this really has dubious news-worthiness =P

I'm glad there's no multiplayer though. I find that BioWare games, unless you've got a DM system going or something don't work well online: all the dialogues are singleplayer and since they are an important part of the game, that makes rather awkward.

 

[HeartAttackBob]

For me they can look into empty KFC buckets as long as they make a good RPG out of it, but frankly I didn't like the big teams in Baldur's Gate, I prefer to have one directly controlable character.

I'm with you on this. I play an RPG to play as my character not baby sit the friendly NPC AI. I am hoping they have continued to make improvements. They have come a long way since Baldur's Gate and recent releases like Mass Effect and Neverwinter series have had near passable AI. Although they still seem to be prone to random IQ drops from time to time.

While I can definitely understand this sentiment, I prefer solving the moron AI problem by turning it off and just telling each character what to do.

Controlling several characters was very possible and enjoyable in Baldurs Gate & Shadows of Amn. However, the first Neverwinter Nights only let you control your main character, which was too simple and stripped down. It also reduced the fun of having access to different ability sets (casting heals, picking locks, dual-wielding beatdowns, etc). NWN2 thankfully returned to a party setup, but the tools for giving each of them commands was a bit more cumbersome than in the Baldurs Gate series.
Specifically, in NWN2 I remember being unable to Stop the AI from guzzling down healing potions. This was particularly annoying when another character was mid-heal-cast, or other times when I was about to win the fight and a knockout of that character was trivial.
"There's a lone kobold left with 4hp! Oh noes! Expensive Healing potion to the rescue! *chug*"

I will definitely look in to Dragons Age once it comes out, but I hope they give the player tools to effectively control a party. Intelligent AI would be nice, but realistically it's probably not going to do what I want more than 50% of the time.

 

[Anachronism]

I'm pumped. Everything I hear about this game makes me MORE pumped.

The trailer worried me, I'll be honest, but this is very good news. Combining tried-and-true techniques with new technology is probably the best thing they could have done, especially when they're using what made Baldur's Gate great.

I hope they take the route of telling a lot of the story through the other characters, like in BG. As the article says, the characters were arguably the best part of those games, and the way they interacted with each other and the environment really elevated the Baldur's Gate games above a lot of other RPGs out there. Hopefully the characters here will be just as memorable.

I just really hope they throw in an Easter egg that somehow involves Minsc.

For me they can look into empty KFC buckets as long as they make a good RPG out of it, but frankly I didn't like the big teams in Baldur's Gate, I prefer to have one directly controlable character.

I'm with you on this. I play an RPG to play as my character not baby sit the friendly NPC AI. I am hoping they have continued to make improvements. They have come a long way since Baldur's Gate and recent releases like Mass Effect and Neverwinter series have had near passable AI. Although they still seem to be prone to random IQ drops from time to time.

I disagree, actually; I liked the fact that your character couldn't handle every situation thrown at them, and had to rely on the others' skills. Micromanaging their equipment could get a little tedious at times, but it allowed for much more effective teamwork than a lot of other RPGs.

Since the characters were such an important feature of BG, the fact that you had to rely on them helped you connect with them even more; you really felt like you'd gone to Hell and back with these people. Plus, it allowed for some truly spectacular boss battles, since with six playable characters, all of them with different abilities, it allowed you to be very tactical in how you fought your enemies, which I liked a lot.

 

[ThatJagoGuy]

I'm not too hot on keeping up with in-development titles, and hadn't heard of this before. I'm pretty psyched if it'll be anything like BG - I'm just nearing the end of the 1st one now and absolutely loving it.

 

[Slycne]

I disagree, actually; I liked the fact that your character couldn't handle every situation thrown at them, and had to rely on the others' skills. Micromanaging their equipment could get a little tedious at times, but it allowed for much more effective teamwork than a lot of other RPGs.

Since the characters were such an important feature of BG, the fact that you had to rely on them helped you connect with them even more; you really felt like you'd gone to Hell and back with these people. Plus, it allowed for some truly spectacular boss battles, since with six playable characters, all of them with different abilities, it allowed you to be very tactical in how you fought your enemies, which I liked a lot.

It's not that I don't enjoy having a party. I like the interactions between my character and them, and yes sometimes I'm fine with taking them over when I need to do something intricate. I just prefer to play as the character I created, not have to sit on the healer because the AI will cast its biggest heal on so much as a paper cut.

I do very a bit depending on the feel of the game. Baldur's Gate had an near strategy feel to it, so needing a much more tactical control of each character wasn't so bad. Baldur's Gate 2 still remains one of my all time favorite games.

 

[Odjin]

quote: "because we've taken away the morality bar," he said. "Taking that away allowed us to have different options for the quests and the dialogue, but we don't need to always have 'evil' and 'good.'"

In fact the options now boil down to violence and sex mostly all the time. That's also a way to get "back to the roots"

 

[thejtrain]

I just really hope they throw in an Easter egg that somehow involves Minsc.

I'm right there with you - I'm only just now in the last third of BG1 (yeah, kind of catching up on the "roots" before Dragon Age rocks my world), and Minsc is my favorite NPC.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, WATCH IT - I'm HUGE!"
"...and steel on steel. The stuff of legends! Right, Boo?"

 

[whyarecarrots]

Hmm, maybe I'm being a bit close minded here, but I loved the cinematic nature of Mass Effect: the simple fact that you saw and heard your character speaking the dialogue really made the storytelling far more complete in my eyes. I skipped no dialogue on my first play of that game and went out of my way to talk to all my crewmembers as much as possible (except Ashley... she annoyed me), something that I have never felt any inclination to do with the stiff characters and more jerky dialogue of Bethesda's titles, which make absolutely no attempts to be cinematic.

That said, I have never played any of the Baldur's gate games, so I really can't judge on this, but somehow it's putting me off this game just that little bit more.

 

[RebelRising]

Hmm, maybe I'm being a bit close minded here, but I loved the cinematic nature of Mass Effect: the simple fact that you saw and heard your character speaking the dialogue really made the storytelling far more complete in my eyes. I skipped no dialogue on my first play of that game and went out of my way to talk to all my crewmembers as much as possible (except Ashley... she annoyed me), something that I have never felt any inclination to do with the stiff characters and more jerky dialogue of Bethesda's titles, which make absolutely no attempts to be cinematic.

That said, I have never played any of the Baldur's gate games, so I really can't judge on this, but somehow it's putting me off this game just that little bit more.

There're definitely cinematics in Dragon Age; I think they're referring more to the gameplay of traditional party-based RPGs.

 

[high_castle]

Well, Baldur's Gate is one of my all-time favorite game series, so I'm more than a little excited to see Dragon Age. But what's really got me interested is the lack of a morality bar. Thank goodness. RPGs have been getting a little too morality-focused lately. It works for games like Mass Effect, where the end result is pretty much the same even if the approach is different, but gets ridiculous in games like Fable where the choices are just stupid. The lack of a karma meter means roleplayers will actually be able to develop their characters to a better degree and customize personalities better. Few people are pure good or evil, so it's nice to see we'll have characters that reflect that.